'Not all those who wander are lost,' as I was wondering, when walking towards the welcoming ceremony of my new school 'Segakuin High-School.' It was a quote that I read from a book yesterday. I sighed and said, "…maybe I am not lost." A girl runs beside me and bumbs my shoulder on the way, knocking down my bag. She noticed and said, "Sorry, I'm kind of in a rush here, if you can excuse me" Before I could reply, she said, "Thanks for understanding" and proceeded to go her direction. To be honest, I did not understand a thing but shrugged it off. She was wearing the same school uniform as the one I am going to. She ran as if she were to catch up on something or if someone was waiting for her.
I entered the school, students from various grades and section in the campus have stalls for joining clubs, for which I had no interest in. You can imagine how noisy it is, so I put my ear buds on and put on trending Japanese-Pop. I was the type that would never get precise when it came to music, I just listened to music which was trending on the internet and the one I found soothing or calm
To be more specific about the school, it is quite popular for students who want to get into great universities and want to have a distinguished career, but for me I joined this school because it was near my aunt's apartment. Most students who have graduated from this school either apply and get accepted for universities like Harvard, Oxford and many other great universities. This school clearly has a great reputation in Japan and is quite affordable for middle class people.
There is only one thing about this school which makes it hard, the entrance exam. The entrance exam is quite hardcore for students as the acceptance rate of the school is less than 5%. You can say that out of the 1,000 students who apply yearly, only 30 – 50 students get accepted into the school. You need to score at least an 85% in the entrance exam to get into the school, I scored a 86% which got me accepted.
I went straight to my class, 1-B. The teacher already wrote the seating arrangement on the blackboard before everyone came. My seat was at the last bench near the window.
15 minutes later, the teacher had entered the classroom, she had medium length grey hair till her shoulder, green eyes, and quite tall. The teacher was beautiful and mature in the way she looked. She wrote her name on the blackboard and started calling out for attendance without any resources on hand. After attendance she told her name and a brief welcome to her fellow students, "Yūka Matsuzaki, that is how you shall pronounce my name. From here onwards, your 'High School' shall begin and enjoy it until the last day, have no regrets." After the surprised welcome, the students applauded for the teacher.
After the little class-bonding session, everyone was called in the auditorium for the welcome ceremony. The principal took the stage and said,
"Dear Students,
Welcome to Segakuin High School This school will give everything what every youthful soul desires. But of course, it comes with a condition we need to fulfil, which is to have no regrets and to work hard on yourself every single day. Embrace the challenges, celebrate the victories, and create memories that will last a lifetime.
This is your journey; make it extraordinary!"
After the ceremony, many students went home, while others just wandered around the campus exploring all the facilities, since it was the first day, the teachers also did not do anything and started do chatter together with each other. I headed to the library to for a newly published book which I recently got into. The school's library was huge to be called it a 'library.'
After a about few minutes, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Surprisingly, it was the same girl I saw in the morning. She said, "Hi there, I came to apologise about what happened today morning. I was in a rush because I had to see someone." I replied, "Don't worry, I didn't think much of it." She, with curiosity, asked "Oh, okay, thanks for the assurance, I was worried. What's your name?" I replied, "Name's Haruka Kayaba, in Class 1-B, What's yours?" She replied, "My name is Akane Akiyama, in Class 1-A." She looks at the time and follows up saying, "I'm getting late, it was good meeting you, Kayaba, bye" and then rushes and leaves the library. This is the first time I talked to someone today, (excluding teachers and staff for info).
It was getting late, so I decided to go back home. It took about 20-30 minutes to walk home from school. Currently, I live with my aunt, her name is Rei Kayaba, a kind person at heart but quite immature. One of the main reasons I can stay here in Tokyo because she was already settled here for her job.
I finally reached home at around. Surprisingly, I found my aunt being there before me. She said, in a excited tone, "Welcome home my sweet grown-up nephew! How was your first day in high school? Did you try and talk to someone at least" I replied, "I guess so". I wasn't lying as I spoke with a girl. She replied, "Oh really, and who exactly?". "I'll keep that to myself" I replied in an assured tone. If I said it was a 'girl' she would start making ridiculous assumptions. "Oh, c'mon why be so reserved, you know I'm your aunt" she scoffed. She then said, " Haruka, your lack of social skills will come back to bite you" For me, making friends wasn't necessary as I could interact with people when needed, I just did things on my own. I ignored her claim and asked, "How was work today?". She replied, "It was exhausting, like always, you know how it goes in the real estate market; There are always clients asking nonsensical questions and some of them just shouting at the phone because the apartment they found wasn't big enough as in the picture they found, well I've gotten used to it by now but still it gets on my nerves sometimes". My aunt works as a real estate manager, so she needs to deal with all kinds of clients. While unpacking I say, "Congrats on getting through your day". "Thanks, I made some curry if you'd like to eat" she said. I replied, "After that so- bento you gave, no thanks", the bento she gave consisted of 3 sections. The top section consisted of broth, the middle consisted of rice and fish, veggies and oyster, the bottom section had Okonomiyaki. I startled after I saw the bento she gave but since she made all that for me, so I stuffed it all in my mouth. Obviously, I then continued to vomit in the washroom for 10 minutes. It was not bad; it was just too much for one person to eat.
My aunt curiously asked, "Sooo… what have you decided to become in the future? I know you won't come all the way to Tokyo just to live with me." I honestly replied, "I don't know,". She gave a sharp glance at me to confirm if I was telling the truth. She said, "It's okay if you don't know take all the time you need, just reminding you're in the mot innocent times of your life, youth. Once you start to grow up, you must get a job, have a marriage, have kids, and goes on until you leave earth. Human lives can only last this long, don't waste it." It's about 9 PM so I head to my bed. As soon as I lie, I suddenly passed out and reminiscing about how exhausting my day was and I had to continue this for a whole year. I was tired so ignored those thoughts and slept.